CBO Says 6 Million in U.S. to Face Penalty for Lacking Insurance

Sept. 19 (Bloomberg) -- About 6 million Americans would
have to pay a penalty under President Barack Obama’s health-care
overhaul for failing to get insurance, the nonpartisan
Congressional Budget Office estimated.

The agency said it now expects about 50 percent more people
to be subject to the tax than it had previously anticipated.
That’s partly because the CBO said it foresees higher
unemployment, which translates into more people without
employer-sponsored coverage.

It’s also a result of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in
June striking down the law’s requirement that states expand
their Medicaid programs, which will leave more uninsured
Americans subject to the penalty, CBO said.

“The bad news and broken promises for Obamacare just keep
piling up,” said House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave
Camp, a Michigan Republican. “This is yet another example of
why we need to repeal this law.”

The overhaul requires most legal residents to have coverage
beginning in 2014 or pay a penalty that would be $695 in 2016 or
2.5 percent of a household’s income, whichever is larger. Most
people wouldn’t be subject to the tax because they already have
coverage, such as through their job.

The law, because it bars insurance companies from
discriminating against those with preexisting conditions, is
designed to spread the risk and cost of covering those people by
requiring almost the entire population to be insured.

“This report confirms that more than 98 percent of
Americans won’t be affected by this penalty,” said Erin Shields
Britt, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human
Services. “Under the law, we’re no longer going to subsidize
the care of those who can afford insurance but make a choice not
to buy it.”